Dermot Gallagher has his say on Celtic’s penalty award against Motherwell

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The Celtic Star

·27 de diciembre de 2024

Dermot Gallagher has his say on Celtic’s penalty award against Motherwell

“If that’s a full-back making this challenge it’s going to be a penalty all day, so it has to be a penalty…” Dermot Gallagher says Motherwell shouldn’t be complaining about the penalty they conceded in their 4-0 defeat at Celtic…

However complain they did, as did theRangers supporters who seem to have a very strange understanding of what is and is not a spot kick.

And the former referee, speaking on Sky Sports today reckons Motherwell has nothing to complain about and were very lucky not to concede TWO spot kicks against the runaway league leaders and Scottish Champions…

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🗣️ "If that's a full-back making this challenge it's going to be a penalty all day, so it has to be a penalty..." Dermot Gallagher says Motherwell shouldn't be complaining about the penalty they conceded in their 4-0 defeat at Celtic 🔽
– viernes, 27 de diciembre de 2024

Stuart Kettlewell lambasted referee Ross Hardie in his post-match comments after Celtic defeated his Motherwell side 4-0 yesterday afternoon.

It was only last week Kettlewell insisted Chris Graham’s decision to send off Dan Casey at Fir Park against Kilmarnock was the worst call he had encountered in his footballing career. Fast forward six days later, and the Fir Park boss has yet more criticisms for SFA’s match officials.

On Ross Hardie’s overall performance, Kettlewell said to Motherwell TV: “What they were [his players]a wee bit irked with today was by the referee’s demeanour and how he communicates with them. If you speak to someone in the appropriate fashion, then I think you’ll get better reactions from players.

“I don’t think you’ll get as much petulance and as much firing at the referee. That’s nothing to do with the decisions, but it’s probably just a wee feeling for me that we can all have a conversation.

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“I’ll take my bit on that as well. I can be a bit emotional, so can football players, but sometimes you just need to put it on a level and almost not having the mannerisms as if you’re a kid at school to waft you away from situations. Communicate, speak, give players an understanding of what your thought process was and I’m sure they’ll respect you.”

On the stroke of half-time, Motherwell goalkeeper Aston Oxborough was adjudged to have connected with Yang resulting in Hardie pointing to the spot which Arne Engels duly converted to open the scoring for Celtic.

Baffled by the decision, Kettlewell outlined: “At the time my gut feeling was that it was soft in terms of how the Celtic player went down from what I felt was minimal to little, if any, contact.

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Arne Engels celebrates scoring during the match between Celtic and Motherwell at Celtic Park, on 26th December 2024. (Picture by Mark Runnacles)

“However, that goes against you but that’s not the game done. We think about trying to galvanise ourselves and coming out stronger in the second half. I was really disappointed by the nature of the second and third goals that Celtic scored.”

In the first-half Hardie booked Motherwell forward Tawanda Maswanhise for a dive inside Celtic’s box — which left Kettlewell unsurprisingly disagreeing with the whistler’s call.

“This is where I’m left baffled. I don’t think it’s a penalty, but it’s not a dive. I’m kind of blown away by that, I really am,” he said. “That’s incredibly frustrating because it comes back to this level of consistency in the decisions that we make, that we see that are completely different from, for example, the Celtic penalty. I struggle to see that there’s a ridiculous amount more contact in either situation.”

🗣️ "If that's a full-back making this challenge it's going to be a penalty all day, so it has to be a penalty..." Dermot Gallagher says Motherwell shouldn't be complaining about the penalty they conceded in their 4-0 defeat at Celtic 🔽
– viernes, 27 de diciembre de 2024

As shown above Dermot Gallagher has had a look at the penalty Celtic got and reckons that there could be no other decision that to award the spot kick, and also points out that Kettlewell’s side were very lucky not to concede a second which was centimetres away from connecting with a Motherwell outstretched arm.

Conor Spence